Stronger Than She Thinks - by Nancy Kerrigan (Hardcover)

About the Book

In her first book for children, Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan shares scenes from her childhood as she learns how to work hard, believe in herself, and to land her first axel jump.

Book Synopsis

"A spirited autobiographical story"--Publishers Weekly

"Straightforward inspiration for very young audiences."--School Library Journal

Nancy (age 8) and her family sacrifice time, money, and effort into her clear skill, talent, and passion for figure skating. She's really good at it, but money is tight while she's learning to land the hardest of figure skating jumps - the axel. And she must be able to do one in order to go to her first competition.

Her skates are too small, her feet hurt, but try after try, she gets up off the ice and takes another turn around the ice until she finally lands that first (wobbly) axel and then lands it solidly at her first competition.

Persistence, hard work, and the importance of believing in yourself are highlighted in this story from the earliest moments of Nancy Kerrigan's figure skating career.

From the author's note:

From the earliest moments in my skating career, I faced obstacle after obstacle. But I kept trying. Every time I fell, I got back up. Every time I failed, I tried again. Every time someone told me no, I kept working until I earned a yes.... Eventually, I learned that I had more strength within me than I ever realized. And here's great news--you're stronger than you think, too.

Review Quotes

PreS-Gr 2-Nancy Kerrigan's picture book memoir reflects on her inner strength during the earliest moments of her figure skating career. The movement of the text echoes the active illustrations, including her toe loops, salchows, and lutzs. Straightforward inspiration for very young audiences.

Olympic-winning figure skater Kerrigan looks back on her childhood.

Going for unvarnished role modeling, Kerrigan leaves her later experiences--including her 1994 attack at the hands of assailants hired by rival skater Tonya Harding's ex-husband--for readers to find elsewhere. Instead, she focuses on her early love of skating ("Blasting across the slick rink was exhilarating!"), the ease with which she left fellow student skaters behind, and obstacles she had to surmount on the way to shining in competition, from squeezing into skates that she had outgrown to working at landing a clean axel. The story glosses over these challenges, however--she is depicted mastering most skating moves with seemingly no effort, and though she couldn't afford skates that fit, the story doesn't elaborate on the financial sacrifices her family made to fund her skating career. As a result, the stakes seem low, and, as she waits under the lights at last for the music to start at a competition, the climactic drama feels manufactured. Putra expertly portrays her subject's famously infectious grin and captures the distinctive looks of a salchow, lutz, and toe loop, but there isn't much in the artwork, the third-person narrative, or the personal note at the end to support Kerrigan's message that "you're stronger than you think, too."

A bland pep talk.(Picture-book autobiography. 6-8)

With Van Cleave, Olympic medalist Kerrigan (b. 1969) writes a spirited autobiographical story about her childhood entry into ice skating. In Putra's dynamic and saturated illustrations, Kerrigan appears in constant motion, while font-size changes emphasize verbs including darted and zoomed. Kerrigan finds ice skating "exhilarating," and when her parents encourage her dream despite tight finances ("Nancy's dad worked three jobs, and her mom didn't work outside the home because she was blind"), she practices endlessly, continuing to train even with too-small skates, and working to problem-solve and land the elusive axel. Foregrounding the figure's determination, hard work, and resilience, the title shows how landing a perfect axel led her to understand "I can do... anything." An author's note concludes. Ages 4-8. (Nov.)

About the Author

Ryan G. Van Cleave is the author of more than 100 books for children and adults, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He earned a PhD in American literature and has taught writing for more than twenty years. As The Picture Book Doctor(TM), he helps creators bring kidlit projects to life on the page, stage, and screen. He believes good stories begin with curiosity. Root beer helps, too.

Arief Putra was born in Borneo Island, Indonesia in 1984, and spent his childhood living at the edge of a rainforest. He worked as an architect until a few years ago when he saw Pascal Campion's art and instantly fell in love with storytelling illustration. Arief is now a full-time illustrator working from his home studio in Jogja City where he lives with his wife and 2 children.